


A Matter of Time

by EternalSurvivor



Series: Losing Time [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternative Universe - Omegaverse, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Angst, Anonymous Sex, Begging, Consensual Underage Sex, Guilt, Hunter-nin Umino Iruka, Hurt No Comfort, Impregnation, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Miscarriage, Regret, Secret Identity, Tree Sex, Umino Iruka-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 09:00:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalSurvivor/pseuds/EternalSurvivor
Summary: Saying good-bye to someone you just met has never been an easy thing.Especially when it's the child you never knew you were carrying.[This is a stand-alone story. It can be read on its own without the rest of the series.]





	A Matter of Time

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: This story is dark, it will not be for everyone. Read the tags and warnings CAREFULLY. This is ABO. Iruka is miscarrying and talking to his baby. There is a flashback to the conception, aka underage sex. it's in italics if you want to skip it. I wrote this partly for my discord server's Kinktober prompts. Those include: ABO, Impregnation, and Begging. Soooo yeah.
> 
> I was in a dark headspace when I wrote this, but I damn well love how it came out and I am hoping some of my regular readers will too.

“I’m sorry, Umino-san, there’s nothing I can do for the baby.”

Shock rocked Iruka to his very core. With his face completely drained of colour, he pushed himself up onto an elbow. He ignored how his injured shoulder ached in protest at the sudden movement. “Baby?!” His panicked gaze locked onto the medic-nin holding his medical chart. “What baby?!”

“You’re miscarrying, Umino-san.” The medic flipped through a few pages, mouth set in a grim line. “The tests we ran indicated the fetus to be at ten weeks gestation. Were you unaware of the pregnancy?”

His hand flew to his lower stomach. “I-I was... unaware, Kusushi-san.” He’d associated the cramping and back pain with the slow-acting poison currently flowing through his system.

Kusushi’s brows furrowed, his dark eyes studying Iruka for a long moment. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way.” With a sigh, he placed a glowing green hand over the younger shinobi’s stomach. Iruka groaned softly as the stabbing pain eased into a dull ache. “Have you noticed any spotting?”

Iruka’s hand fisted into the scrub shirt he’d been forced to change into. “Some, I assumed it was the poison.”

“In a way, it is.” Kusushi pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “The poison most likely damaged the umbilical cord.” The medic drew his hand away. “That and the injuries you sustained on your mission are putting too much stress on the fetus. After the healing you just underwent, it’s best to let your body process with the miscarriage naturally. It should only be an hour or so.”

A pang of regret ripped through Iruka’s chest, leaving him aching and cold. “Okay, thank you.”

“Is there anyone you’d like me to notify for you?” The rest went unsaid, but they both knew the implication. _ Should I notify the sire? _

“No, it was a mission transgression. We aren’t involved.” Iruka bit the inside of his cheek, pushing down the memories of strong hands gripping his hips and an all-consuming heat inside him. “I’m fine on my own.”

Kusushi’s pen stilled halfway through jotting notes onto his chart. “A mission transgression?”

“Ah,” Iruka’s face flushed despite the situation. “It was my first time using chakra to suppress my heat during a mission. My reserves ran low. I had to choose between maintaining the suppression or saving my partner. I chose the latter and well.” He rubbed a hand over his stomach. “This is the unintended result.”

“There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Umino-san. It happens more frequently than you’d assume.” Kusushi patted Iruka’s leg in an awkward attempt to be understanding. ANBU medics, however, weren’t known for their bedside manner. Kusushi clipped a heart monitor sensor to his finger.

“I… wasn’t aware this was a common occurrence.”

“Not common, but frequent. You’re the third case I’ve seen this year.” Kusushi placed two sticky pads on either side of Iruka’s naval and turned on a second heart monitor. A rapid heartbeat sprang to life on the screen. “Huh, the fetal heart rate is still strong, that's quite amazing.”

Goosebumps raised across his arms as Iruka’s breath caught in his throat. The gravity of their conversation finally registered through the shock. A trembling hand pressed protectively over his pelvis. “That’s…”

_ His baby’s heartbeat.  
_

“Indeed.” The medic-nin squeezed his knee and placed Iruka’s chart in the wall holder. “I’ll check on you in a little while, ring the call bell if you need anything.” Kusushi pulled the curtain around Iruka’s bed for privacy as he took his leave.

With that, he was left to his thoughts.

Rolling onto his back, Iruka pulled his shirt up to his ribs. Nothing seemed out of the norm to show he was pregnant. No telltale bump, no change to his pectorals. There’d been no morning sickness, no change in his eating habits. Other than an increase in his fatigue, which could easily be attributed to his back-to-back mission streak, no traditional pregnancy symptoms came to mind.

But, there was a tiny life growing inside him, _ dying _inside him.

The ache in his chest worsened. For the first time since the Kyuubi murdered his parents, there was another person in the world who shared his blood. “It’s probably for the best,” he murmured quietly. That didn’t stop Iruka from massaging the skin just below his navel, where he assumed the fetus to be. Was it in pain? Damn, he hoped not.

His fingers pressed lightly into his skin when another cramp tensed his abdominal muscles. “Sorry, you got stuck with someone like me.” Iruka licked his lips, his hands returning to the rubbing motion. “You’re going to be better off this way, trust me.”

Was taking to it normal? This was all he could really do. Aw, damn. It wasn’t even an _ it. _ This was a dying baby. _ His _ dying baby. Iruka chewed on his bottom lip, the regret churning into deep-seated guilt. He didn’t even know if he carried a boy or a girl. How far along did a pregnancy have to be to tell? “I’m going to assume you’re a boy. Don’t hold it against me if I’m wrong. A boy just seems like the kind of baby _ he’d _ make.”

Iruka blinked when his vision began to swim. A few tears trickled slowly down his cheeks. Damn, he was trained to keep a better grip on his emotions than this. Iruka stared at his hands, eyes fixed on the peripheral intravenous line inserted into the back of his left hand. Kusushi had him on a strong antibiotic and universal antitoxin to combat the slow-acting poison.

His shoulder ached dully from the newly healed wound he sustained. A kodachi ran him straight through. Just his luck the blade was coated in poison. “Happy Birthday to me,” Iruka chuckled bitterly. Running an A-rank recovery for his sweet sixteen wasn’t Iruka’s idea of a good time. They’d retrieved the jounin’s body though, and none of his teammates were dead. So, in the end, he counted it as a win.

“Well, Little Man, it’s just you and me for however long you stubbornly decide to hang on.” Iruka’s fingers rubbed in circular motions to soothe himself as much as he hoped to the baby. He huffed out a sigh, a few more tears slipping down his cheeks. “You picked two fucked-up shinobi for parents, you know?” Head shifting to the side, Iruka’s dark eyes landed on the porcelain mask sitting atop his neatly folded hunter-nin uniform. “Is this karmic justice or something? You royally piss off someone in your previous life for this one to be so short?”

Scrubbing more tears away, Iruka cursed quietly. “I’m sorry this is happening to you. I’m sorry you’re suffering because of my choices.” He cupped both hands over his pelvis when a sharp pain shot from his abdomen right around to his lower back. Something sticky coated his inner thighs. The smell of copper crinkled his nose. _ Blood. _ “...Shit that hurts.”

Iruka curled into a fetal position on his right side, one hand stroking back and forth over his stomach. The baby’s heartbeat dipped low, slowing from the frantic beating it’d exhibited up until then. Slowed, but still remained for some reason. “...Y-You not ready to go yet, Little Man?” Iruka hissed between the painful cramps. “Must’ve got that stubborn streak from your sire.”

Closing his eyes, Iruka laid still, listening to his baby’s rapid heartbeat alongside his own. “I hope you’re not waiting to hear about him. There’s not much I can tell you.” Iruka chewed on his bottom lip, a shudder passing through him. The memories of that night were still vivid in his mind. He could almost feel those large hands pulling down his slick-coated pants, the rush of being filled so utterly and completely, the sound of his partner’s laboured breathing against his shoulder.

Iruka found himself talking just to fill the silence. “He’s an ANBU, codename Hound, an alpha. I’m a hunter-nin, codename Cardinal, an omega, clearly. It was our first mission together. I don’t think he’s much older than I am. At least, he didn’t seem to be. He used lightning and earth jutsu a lot, had solid foundational skills and used them well, too. I didn’t know you could do half the shit with a substitution jutsu he pulled off.”

That little heartbeat fluttered as if responding to his words. “You were a huge oops. You should’ve never been conceived, yet, here you are, Little Man.” Iruka inhaled deeply, a cold sweat breaking out across his skin as the pain worsened. “Can’t bring myself to regret it though. Not that night or you. It’s been a while since I’ve had any family, so this is kind of bittersweet, you know?”

He blew some stray bangs from his eyes. “I can’t speak for your sire, though he’d probably be pretty fucking mad.” Iruka hugged both arms around his stomach, curling up a little tighter. “That night…”

_ “You’re in heat.”  
_

_ The feral snarl seemed to hit Iruka right in the gut. He stood from the crouch he’d landed in. Heat already curling tightly through his lower stomach, making his chest heave with each breath. He could feel the need already tugging at the back of his mind. No point in denying the obvious. “I am.”  
_

_ Mismatched eyes bore into his masked face from across the battlefield. Several dead bodies separated them, but Iruka could smell the spike in his partner’s scent. An involuntary, biological reaction to an omega in heat. “You used too much chakra, implementing that suiton jutsu was a stupid idea.”  
_

_ “If I didn’t, you’d be dead, Hound.” Iruka kicked one of the dead bodies to emphasize his point. Drowning in a rush of chakra-enhanced water was a nasty way to go. He ran a shaky hand through his loose hair, grateful for the Cardinal mask that hid the rising flush on his face. His pants grew more uncomfortably tight with each passing minute. _

_ “You solved one problem by creating another. An omega in heat has no business being on a mission.”  
_

_ Iruka snapped, his patience gone with the overwhelming urgency clawing at his insides. Just his luck to get stuck with a discriminating bigatrist. “What? The big, bad alpha ANBU can’t handle a little temptation?” _

_ His partner moved so fast, Iruka found himself shoved face flush into a tree trunk before he drew in another breath. The weight of an alpha pressed so firmly to his back left his legs weak. “Don’t test me.” Hound ground out, his voice tight with barely controlled lust.  
_

_ Iruka’s inner thighs quivered, the familiar sensation of slick quickly dampening his pants. He arched back against the alpha on instinct, groaning softly at the hardness he found there. His gloved fingers dug into the bark. This was bad, really bad. He couldn’t maintain his breathing, no matter how hard his shinobi training tired to reinforce it. The primal part of his mind buzzed with a heady need he couldn’t fight any longer. “...Fuck, Hound, please.” _

_ The mask muffled Hound’s curses but did little for the uncontrolled spike to his scent. The heavy, spicy aroma clogged Iruka’s nose, completely overwhelmed his senses. Iruka’s hips twisted back and down, dragging along his partner’s arousal through their thick, shinobi-issue pants. He wanted, he needed, with a burning intensity he’d never felt in the year since he’d first presented. Was this from abruptly halting the chakra suppression halfway through his cycle? “...Alpha.”  
_

_ There was a clink of porcelain, and a masked nose pressed into the exposed skin just behind his left ear. “You smell so damn good…”  
_

_ Iruka realized vaguely he had no idea what his pheromones had done to his own scent. Large hands gripped his hips strong enough to bruise and all rational thoughts flew from his heat-addled mind. He burned, burned, burned! Every inch of him felt like it was fire. An inferno blazed through his blood, ignited his nerve endings with unquenchable want. “Fuck me, please!”  
_

_ Nosing his sweaty hair aside, his partner mouthed Iruka’s nape through his cloth mask. “Listen to you, damn Cardinal.” One hand disappeared from his hip. He whimpered at the loss of contact until that hand dipped into his boxers, now gloveless, and wrapped around his aching cock.  
_

_ A full-body shudder rolled through him as precum was spread along his hard length by nimble, delectable fingers. Iruka’s hips jutted forward, pushing his cock through his partner’s strong grip. The heat in his gut coiled tighter, a simple touch not enough to sate it. “More, please,” he moaned and swallowed hard between laboured breaths. He was fully panting now, light-headed and shaking. “I need more. Alpha…” _

_ Cold air hit his ass when Hound pulled slick-soaked briefs and pants down with a hard yank. The tight material bunched around his hips. His partner’s feral growl echoed next to his ear. “Fuck, you’re drenched.” The skilled twist of the alpha’s wrist and the press of a thumb to the tip of his cock made Iruka all but wail from the heightening, mind-muddling pleasure. _

_ His cardinal mask was suddenly thrown aside. Hound’s hand clamped over his mouth, muffling his cries. “Quiet, still exposed.” His partner ground out the broken thoughts, pressed his face into the crook of Iruka’s neck and inhaled deeply. “Dangerous… so, fuck.” Hound’s hand slipped from his mouth to grasp his chin.  
_

_ “I-I need…!” Oh, how he needed!! Iruka squeezed his partner’s forearm hard, nails digging in deep enough to leave half-moon abrasions behind. “I-I want…!!” His hips rocked side-to-side, sweat clinging his uniform to his skin. “Please, please, please!!” Pressed as flushed as the alpha was to his back, he felt the muscles that spasmed as the last of Hound’s self-control snapped.  
_

_ A zipper dragged down, large hands gripped Iruka's hips, dragged him back and- _

_ And- _

_ Hound was inside him, pushing him open, filling him, stretching him in ways he’d never been before. Iruka’s palms flattened against the tree trunk for support. He rocked into his partner, the urge to move, to appease the heat burning through his veins, overwhelming even with an alpha seated fully inside him. And Hound was, so utterly and completely pressed to the hilt, Iruka’s ass cushioned firmly against his cotton-clad thighs.  
_

_ Barely aware of the heady whimpers slipping past his parted lips, Iruka threw his head back against Hound’s shoulder. “Alpha! Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me, please!” His partner’s cock filled him so well, pressed right where the inferno inside him seemed to accumulate.  
_

_ The first drag of Hound’s cock along his inner walls left Iruka shaking. The second had him seeing stars behind his tightly shut eyes. The third would’ve buckled his knees if not for the bruising grip on his hips. “I’m going to fuck you so hard, you’ll feel it for weeks,” his partner growled into his ear.  
_

_ “Yes, Alpha!” Oh, how he wanted that! To be fucked and filled so thoroughly by this strong alpha. His partner was anything but gentle with him. Each fierce thrust rocked Iruka onto the balls of his feet, pressed him half prone against the massive oak he’d been pinned to. The pure, raw power of each press and drag of hard, velvety flesh inside him sent jolts of pleasure burning through his entire system.  
_

_ Iruka was no virgin. He’d had a lover for all three of his previous heats, an age mate, someone he trusted. But this-! “Oh, oh yes, Alpha!” Hound’s cock felt massive each time he sheathed that throbbing length deep in his trembling body. Thick, long and oh so perfect in the way it stuck the hot centre of the all-consuming inferno that seemed to burn him from the inside out.  
_

_ He’d never felt so full, so completely had. And still, Iruka wanted, yearned for, something more on a primal level. ‘A powerful alpha makes strong pups, he feels so good’ the primordial part of his hindbrain cooed, ‘take all of him, it’ll feel so good, his pup, his seed, so good, so good, so good…’ His inner walls clenched, his scent spiking with the heat coiling tightly in his gut. “So good, Alpha, so good.” Iruka turned his exposed face into Hound’s neck, mouthed pleas against the damp material covering his partner’s skin. “...Y-your seed, inside, please.” _

_ The gloved hand tangled into Iruka’s hair, cradling his head against Hound’s shoulder. A masked mouth grazed his jugular, his partner’s ungloved hand closing around his aching cock again. “Holy fucking shit, Cardinal…”  
_

_ It was the most delicious kind of torture. Iruka found himself caught between the thick cock striking so perfectly deep and the skilled hand that knew exactly where to press and stroke. His hips stuttered, unsure which stimuli to respond to. The mounting pleasure overwhelmed his senses, made his vision swim. “Please, please, please,” he moaned each word in time to his partner’s powerful thrusts, unaware exactly what he was begging for, only knowing he needed, needed, needed… _

_ Iruka suddenly found himself pushed forward, cheek pressed to the bark and hands pinned above his head. Hound’s large hands covered his own, their fingers laced and held. He squirmed, hips shifting back against his partner when he felt an unfamiliar pressure build against his rim. A few harsh thrusts sank the alpha into him so deep, his vision blurred. And then something pressed into him, thick, hot and more filling than any cock he’d ever taken before. It stretched him open, almost unbearably so. Iruka’s eyes flew open, lips parted in a soundless cry.  
_

_ That was- _

_ Hound _ _ had _ _ just- _

_ “Y-your knot...” Iruka whimpered and jerked when his partner shifted his hips every so slightly. His inner walls spasmed around the thick intrusion. His head fell forward against his forearm, his entire body shaking from shock and pleasure. Full, he felt so full, almost too much so.  
_

_ “Fuck, you took that so damn well.” A growl resonated from his back as Hound buried his face in Iruka's flak jacket, just between his shoulder blades. “...You’re so fucking perfect.” His partner rutted into him, short, deep thrusts that dragged across his prostate.  
_

_ Iruka was only vaguely aware he was open-mouthed panting. “A-Alpha!!” His head swam, the heat inside him searing to an uncontrolled inferno. “I-Inside, please, cum inside,” he rambled, pleaded, begged, while his instincts roared in his head and he teetered on the edge of ecstasy. “Y-Your seed, I want…!!” It all coiled inside him, drawing his muscles taut until Hound struck just the right spot and the entire world exploded in blinding white. He stiffened and shuttered, inner walls clenching around the hot thickness inside him. _

_ His partner snarled, hips striking hard against Iruka’s ass. The knot held, pulsing as Hound released inside him. A sudden rush of heat flooded deep inside him, thick and potent. With his head spinning and vision blackening, Iruka almost crooned as his partner's seed pooled in his most intimate core. It settled some of the frantic fire inside him and cleared his mind enough to think.  
_

_ Holy hell, that was the best sex of his life!!  
_

_ Iruka was still reeling from that realization when a mask mouth pressed firmly to his own. Hound's arms came around him in a too-tight embrace. Pushing his back flush against his partner's chest, Iruka dragged that confounded facial mask down just enough to access what he sought: Hound's mouth.  
_

_ The alpha stiffened beneath his parting lips and seeking tongue. Iruka coaxed a rumble from his chest with a sultry moan. Hound grasped fists full of his grey flak jacket, mouth opening to allow Iruka the access he craved. Fresh heat burned through him, but his partner’s arms kept him grounded for the time being. _

_ Their bodies remained intimately tied together. It took time for a knot to soften and neither shinobi showed any desire to part from the other.  
_

They lost hours against that old oak with bark flaked from one too many kunai hitting it over the years. Iruka recalled each dip and grove as intimately as he did the feel of his partner inside him. The night got lost in a blur of heat and primal need. It was close to sunrise before Hound regathered enough of his senses to shove two soldier pills into Iruka’s mouth.

The medically enhanced stimulant boosted his chakra reserves enough to suppress his raging heat. In a hurried flurry, masks were resecured, clothes fixed, and dead bodies disposed of. Few words were exchanged on the return home. Iruka leapt through the trees back to Konoha with ruined uniform pants and his partner’s seed a heavy, hot weight inside him.

He pillowed his head on his arm, dark eyes fixed on the steadily dwindling beat of his baby’s heart. “Just a matter of time now, huh Little Man?” He rubbed slow circles over his lower abdomen, teeth gritting against a particularly hard cramp. Fresh, warm blood made him scrub pants uncomfortably sticky. “Y-You’ve got to be getting tired.”

Iruka groaned, several strands of hair sticking to his sweaty face and neck. Wrapping both arms around his lower stomach, he curled in on himself tighter. “It’s okay, you know? You don’t have to keep hanging on. I don’t know why you are, honestly.” He blinked rapidly, tears steadily trickling down his cheeks. “Damn it, I can’t protect anything.”

Guilt, regret, they were strong motivators to ask oneself _ what if. _ Iruka refused to let himself fall into that trap. He could lose himself in hypotheticals. That wouldn’t change the situation for him or his baby. He made his choices, now he would see the consequences through to the very end. Both hands cupped gently over his lower stomach. He owed this little life that much. “Sorry, you got saddled with such a horrible Papa. How did I not figure out you were with me all this time?”

Sharp pain, like being stabbed with a kunai, shot through his pelvis to his back. Iruka grasped his scrub shirt so tightly, his knuckles turned white. “Crap.” He could feel himself shaking -from anxiety as much as the pain. His own heart monitor skyrocketed as the baby’s dipped low, each beep softer and more drawn out than the last.

His chest tightened, the ache in his heart of a different nature. “...Y-You’re going to be stubborn right to the end, aren’t you?” Damn, he really was pregnant with Hound’s kid. The thought felt as surreal as the entire situation. He was miscarrying an ANBU Captain’s child. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. You deserve so much better than this.”

There was nothing he could do to ease himself or the baby through this. So he just gritted his teeth and bore the pain. Minutes seemed to drag into eternity with the cramps quickly worsening. His muscles tensed, breathing ragged as he tried to keep himself calm. “Come on, Little Man, we can get through this.” Wait, why was he encouraging a dying fetus? There was no way through this for his baby besides death.

_ His baby. _

“When did I… s-start thinking of you a-as mine?”

Not bothering to wipe away the tears any longer, Iruka almost sobbed as more blood coated his inner thighs. “Why’re you still fighting?” He rubbed slow, soothing circles over his lower stomach, trying desperately to ignore the ache in his chest. “You don’t have to stay with me. You can’t, there’s no point to this.”

The heart monitor dipped and fluctuated. How ridiculous to think a fetus was responding to his rambles. Yet, here he was, with a dying fetus, in a hopeless situation, too stubborn to just let go. “Not going to give up, huh? Is that your nindo? Your Will of Fire?”

Iruka squeezed his eyes shut against the tears. “...You want to live, don’t you Little Man?” Both palms pressed flat to his lower abdomen as if to support the dying infant inside him. “F-Fuck, this sucks.” What was he supposed to do? He wasn’t a Medic, he couldn’t save the baby. Even if he could, then what? He ran so many missions, he was out of the village more than he was in. He barely kept himself alive, how was he supposed to care for a child?

Iruka was sixteen and alone, the last Umino.

Was Hound alone too?

“...I-I’m not the last… r-right now, am I?”

Iruka wailed, a sudden, sharp stab of pain almost making him black out. “F-Fuck, fuck, _fuck.” _Blood coated his inner thighs and legs. For an agonizing second, his baby’s heart monitor went silent and then beeped weakly.

“...No.” His own heart pounded in his ears, skin damp with tears and sweat. “No, no, no...” He buried himself in his duty to Konoha, in his missions. Just to forget, to not feel for a little while. His parents, his home, his _ happiness. _ It was all gone. “I-I don’t want to lose my baby too!”

With the last of his strength, Iruka hit the call bell.


End file.
